Pause, Relax, breathe: getting through life and midterms

A note from Jeff Morosoff:Hofstra Honors Program students in my PR Fundamentals class are required to submit guest blog posts throughout the semester. My regular post follows the guest column. Today’s guest post is written by public relations sophomore Daniella Zolezzi:

Daniella Zolezzi

The semester being halfway complete can only mean one thing: midterm exams. Students expect that each semester they will deal with an absurd amount of stress. Twice in the semester that stress amplifies exponentially; one of these occasions happens to be midterms. Midterms mark the halfway point in the semester between syllabus week to the most stressful time of all: finals week. Working in public relations is also a huge stress inducer. However, keep in mind why you are putting yourself through these experiences and to stay positive.

Although it’s easy to get caught up in things that cause frustration, it’s important to look at the bigger picture and relax. You’re in school to become educated and enrich your life, not to stress over exams. Similarly, in a public relations campaign, the payoff is not necessarily immediate. Often the goal of a PR campaign is in fact long term because building a positive public image does not happen overnight.

When getting stressed over exams, homework, working, etc., becoming overwhelmed may seem unavoidable. However, there are a lot of steps you can take to maintain your sanity. Time management and staying organized are both a huge part of public relations. Learning to avoid procrastination is crucial when trying to manage a busy schedule. While studying for exams, having concise and organized notes makes studying a lot easier and quicker. So in order to work efficiently and productively, be organized and timely.

During these stressful weeks also remember to take a break. Step away from your work and get a breath of fresh air. Do something that you enjoy like watch an episode of your favorite show, go on Facebook, or have a mini dance party. Just give yourself a little time to unwind. The key to doing this: don’t come back to consciousness hours later and realize you finished an entire NetFlix series.

Whether in your internship, at school, or at work, getting overwhelmed is inevitable. Remember: take a step back and breathe. You got this far; you’ll get further. This, too, shall pass.

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6 thoughts on “Pause, Relax, breathe: getting through life and midterms”

I understand where Daniella is coming from but in certain aspects I don’t agree. Yes when I am overwhelmed by work in courses for my major it helps me to think about why I am taking these classes and the ends to justify the means. But in my Spanish 3 class which I have to take because of the university requirement it really doesn’t help me all that much because I don’t see when I am going to use this info again.

Well this could be one encouraging post that I can remember for finals week. Yes, during midterms and finals week our stress levels rises to a high pit and some of us just can’t take it, however, some of us can. Sometimes I feel that it is pointless to have midterms and finals because all what it does is cause a person a severe amount of stress and that takes the beauty of learning away. Most of the time I feel that midterms and finals don’t prove that you have learned a lot, it only proves that you can take a test, which by no means has anything to do with getting an education. It just shows that you can sit for 3 hours and take a standardized stressful test. People often get test anxiety and won’t be able to remember what they studied or learned throughout the semester. Just sitting in front of an exam is a lot of pressure, but when your anxiety comes in and attacks, that becomes even more pressure. I once had a professor that didn’t believe in exams what so ever; the only assignments she gave us were writing assignments and I personally think writing assignments are a much better way of proving that you have learned something because you can write about what you have learned and you can talk about how you felt about it and how everything you learned will be useful to your future. Exams just makes us go crazy and we just want to get them over with, in my opinion, like I said, finals and midterms only take the fun and beauty out of the education process.

This takes a very positive and interesting perspective on everyone’s most dreaded time of the semester next to finals week. I agree that during times of stress and an overwhelming workload, it is important to take a step back and remember the purpose in all of it. Comparing the stress of mid-terms to public relations is an interesting take, as well. While sometimes both of these things put a great deal of pressure on us, the results of all the hard work are often worth it in the end.

Midterms is easily my least favorite part about the Fall semester because just when you get back into the swing of things, midterms are being assigned. Once they are assigned, I put into perspective how much more time is left in the semester and how am I going to manage getting all my work done. It definitely is a stressful time but midterms and finals are inevitable. No matter how much we procrastinate, the due date will always come and the assignment will still be due. It is our responsibility to keep ourselves on track and realize that they reason we live at our university is because we are paying to learn at the university. What keeps me motivated is that I am a senior and I want to graduate on time this May. Yes, leaving college will be bittersweet but I am very excited to see what the future has in store for me. Hopefully it will include massive amounts of money. Thank you for this encouraging post, I like how you connected time management and being organized to how in the real world, we as PR majors need to have learned these tricks in order to succeed in our profession.

Thank you for such an encouraging post. As a student I know I tend to get really stressed around and exam and project time. It is nice to have someone say take a step back, look in and breath. I think we all need someone to say this to us from time to time throughout not just our school, but lives in general.

Having just gone through one of the most stressful weeks of this semester, this post helped me a lot. Unfortunately, midterms and finals are always going to be overwhelming, but now that I am close to the end of my academic career, I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Daniella is right. Looking forward to your career after college is a very great way to keep yourself going. I have to remind myself at least twice a week why I put myself through in school. It helps me complete high quality work that will help train me for my professional life.

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ABOUT ME

I'm an associate professor at Hofstra University and director of Hofstra's graduate program in public relations. For 27 years I held corporate, nonprofit, government, agency, and academic PR positions before doing what I love most: teaching. I'm a past president of the trade group Public Relations Professionals of Long Island and serve on the advisory board of the Museum of Public Relations. I'm also an active member of several professional organizations, and serve as faculty adviser to Hofstra's Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter. I was honored to receive the 2016 Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award from Hofstra's Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.

While I'm immensely happy to play a role my students' achievements, I'm most proud of my four adult children, their significant others, and my two adorable grandsons. A native of Massapequa Park, N.Y., my wonderful wife Tema and I live in Great Neck, N.Y. with our high-maintenance beagle, Toby.